In this video, members of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Australia call for the immediate release of Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk.

The 25-year-old leading member of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists is imprisoned on fraudulent charges of “high treason” and serving Russian interests, on the basis of his campaign against the US-NATO proxy war against Russia.

In fact, Bogdan is an intransigent opponent of the regimes of both Zelensky and Putin, and the oligarchs whose interests they represent. Bogdan fights for the unification of the working class and youth in Ukraine, Russia and internationally in a struggle against war and its root cause: capitalism.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have already been slaughtered in the interests of the US and European imperialist powers, which seized on Putin’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to advance their long-held aim of dismantling Russia and dividing the spoils.

The Australian Labor government has been among the most prominent non-NATO supporters of the war against Russia. It has sent millions of dollars worth of “lethal aid” and has helped train Ukrainians in Britain, preparing them to be sent off into the meat grinder.

The IYSSE calls on young people in Australia and globally to join the campaign to free Bogdan as part of the fight to defend democratic rights, which are under increasing threat as the ruling elites around the world deepen their militarist agenda.

Share this video on social media and with friends, family, co-workers and classmates. Sign the petition calling for Bogdan’s freedom at wsws.org/FreeBogdan.

Join the IYSSE and take your place in the fight to end war and the turn to authoritarianism which accompanies it.

Email: iysseaus@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/IYSSEaustralia
Twitter: @IysseA
Instagram: @iysse.aus